Now, I saw and read this before, and for the most part, I agree with what he has to say. Comedian Bill Cosby here is talking about a very real absenteeism within the poor, in this case specifically black, community. What he says rings of truth, and shows that even among poor people, the consumer-dominated mindset has prevailed. Specifically, he talks about how willing parents are to buy their kids sneakers for $500, but are not willing to pay $200 for Hooked on Phonics.
Of course, I understand that this is a rather touchy subject, and that this speech has been used and abused and taken apart and taken out of context by many whites, particularly neocons and Tea Party advocates who, quite frankly, seem to be bordering on racism themselves too often.
It is not in that spirit that I am sharing this. In fact, personally, I am far more alarmed with the spirit of corporate supremacy and corporate welfare system that has now long prevailed in the United States, and which is not unrelated to this topic, frankly.
But the fact of the matter is that none of this, absolutely nothing, will change, unless and until people begin to take the power that is rightfully theirs into their own hand. Right now in America, the real power is in the consumer economy. The only way we can change that is by becoming more educated on an individual, as well as a community, basis. We need to understand things of real value, and do away with the throw away consumer culture that presently prevails.
Many warnings about it have come for a long time. Eisenhower warned us of the "military industrial complex". Carter warned us of the moral crisis facing America, which he viewed as the single greatest threat to the future of the United States. In each case, these two presidents were urging the American people to take the power that rightfully belonged to them, and to fight to keep it doggedly against those who would set out to cheapen them, and to focus instead on frivolities. Many others have given us less famous warnings, and we should collectively know better, too. Bill Cosby is blasting the poor community for not valuing those things that matter most, but on some level, I think what he is saying is relevant to a majority of Americans, including those who are pretty well off.
Throw away consumerism has run rampant. I know people who rush out to get the latest and the greatest of technological wonders as soon as they can, at top price, in order to show off to their family, their friends, their neighbors, and whoever else might happen to be available. I know people that spend enormous amounts of money on getting the "right" clothes for the trendy or fashionable look of the moment, or who spend more than they can afford to get the coolest or most luxurious vehicle they can get. Of course, we all saw what happened when people who could ill afford huge homes were granted the ability to actually obtain those homes that they simply could not afford.
The only thing left to do with throw away consumerism is throw away the whole system itself.
In order to do that, though, we need to educate ourselves of things with higher values. Some people will automatically assume that religion is the only such thing, although I am not specifically referring to religion here. I am talking about personal empowerment, real empowerment (and not the kind that you find in twelve step programs at your local bookstore, or those "How to Make a Fortune Fast" books). Personal empowerment that spreads throughout a community is communal empowerment. People keep wondering how we can take our country back? That's the way we are going to do it. The only way we are going to do it. By educating ourselves, and then making more informed decisions based on our newfound knowledge and power.
In any case, here is the speech by Bill Cosby that he gave in 2004, at an NAACP event that got me on this topic in the first place:
They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk: Why you ain't, Where you is, What he drive, Where he stay, Where he work, Who you be... And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk.
Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living.
People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education, and now we've got these knuckleheads walking around. The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal. These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids. $500 sneakers for what? And they won't spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.
I am talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit. Where were you when he was 2? Where were you when he was 12? Where were you when he was 18 and how come you didn't know that he had a pistol? And where is the father? Or who is his father?
People putting their clothes on backward: Isn't that a sign of something gone wrong? People with their hats on backward, pants down around the crack, isn't that a sign of something? Or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up? Isn't it a sign of something when she has her dress all the way up and got all type of needles [piercing] going through her body?
What part of Africa did this come from? We are not Africans. Those people are not Africans; they don't know a thing about Africa. With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail.
Brown or black versus the Board of Education is no longer the white person's problem. We have got to take the neighborhood back. People used to be ashamed. Today a woman has eight children with eight different 'husbands' — or men or whatever you call them now. We have millionaire football players who cannot read. We have million-dollar basketball players who can't write two paragraphs. We as black folks have to do a better job. Someone working at Wal-Mart with seven kids, you are hurting us. We have to start holding each other to a higher standard.
We cannot blame the white people any longer.
~ Bill Cosby
Here are some further quotes from Bill Cosby, defending his position (all of these quotes, as well as the speech above, were taken from http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/cosby.asp)
"It makes no sense to claim that these are things that belong quietly in the black community. We have to figure out how do you get parenting back into the home. This is a problem of epic proportion."
"I think that it is time for concerned African-Americans to march, galvanize and raise awareness about this epidemic, to transform our helplessness, frustration and righteous indignation into a sense of shared responsibility and action."
"I feel that I can no longer remain silent. If I have to make a choice between keeping quiet so that conservative media does not speak negatively or ringing the bell to galvanize those who want change in the lower economic community, then I choose to be a bell ringer."
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